Back when I was in art school, (how long ago will remain a mystery) I worked in the wonderful world of customer service. Both as a front end manager at a grocery chain and at the front desk of a high end hotel.
I hated both jobs, at first.
I was not much of a people person at the time - I detested the constant drove of mundane problems. Like dealing with the devastated soccer mom who couldn’t find some Oprah recommended jar of overpriced peanut butter or the jack stick who thought he was the Prince of big town and demanded a suite. Thing is, I was doing this everyday. I knew the peanut butter she wanted tasted like crap and since the Oprah special - the price went up by $1 for no reason. And that suite, the one overlooking the scenic paper mill polluted river - is the same as every other room but for your extra money you can be closer to the putrid stink of the mill. What do I know?
But much like prison, annoyance weans and acceptance began to set in. I started to notice that people are difficult to work with usually for one of a couple reasons:
- Because they haven’t identified their problem correctly.
- They simply want to hear from you that their evaluation of what is wrong is accurate and you’ll “get on it” without a word.
I am incapable of scenario number 2. I’ve never been one to sugarcoat things or blow sunshine up someone’s ass to get a job done. I have my opinion of what works and doesn’t. Yes, I have been wrong on more than one occasion but I do learn from my mistakes and I listen to the hairs on the back of my neck when something just doesn’t ‘feel’ right. I love clients that appreciate the creative process, from the spark to the implementation of an idea. They understand that creating what we do is an organic process.
Sometimes a client will disagree with our vision. While I’m thick-skinned enough to handle that, I also think its a good idea to part ways before things get ugly. Our best relationships with clients have been when the client trusts us to identify the problem correctly and “partners” with us to fix it. We both learn from this sort of process. When the client starts to hold my wrist and move the paintbrush around the canvas - we cease to be the vendor you hired. Neither of us will be happy. “Lets just be friends.”
So I just want to thank our clients that made 2007 a wonderful year and most of all thank you for trusting us to do what we do.